In the typical linear linkless ammunition feeding system, the individual rounds of ammunition are accommodated in separate carriers which are serially interconnected to form a conveyor. This conveyor is trained throughout the interior of the magazine in a manner to maximize packing density and exits the magazine to deliver the rounds seriatim to the gun. At some point in this delivery, the rounds are picked from the conveyor carriers and loaded into the gun for firing. In many gun system applications, it is required that the spent shell casings be saved rather than simply ejected from the system. In such case, the conveyor is typically made endless, and the spent shell casings are successively returned to the carriers of the conveyor for conveyance back into the magazine and stored.
An ammunition handling system of this linear linkless type is disclosed in Stoner U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,395, wherein an endless ammunition conveyor is trained in a serpentine or folded accordian path through a magazine. The conveyor exits the magazine at one end to deliver live rounds to a rapid-fire gun and re-enters the magazine at the other end carrying spent rounds for storage. It will be appreciated that, in systems of the type disclosed in this patent, the entire conveyor must be driven at a requisite high velocity to satisfy the rapid firing rate of modern gun systems. This requires a large and powerful conveyor driving source, particularly where large ammunition is concerned. In addition, the power source must possess the further capacity to rapidly accelerate the entire conveyor and its ammunition cargo from a standing start to the full gun firing rate velocity. A magazine fully loaded with live rounds represents considerable inertia to be overcome during such rapid acceleration.
To reduce the requisite conveyor velocity without prejudicing gun firing rate, resort has made to a two-bay or two-tier conveyor arrangement wherein the rounds of ammunition are conveyed to the gun in pairs. This approach theoretically reduces the conveyor speed by one-half relative to a given gun firing rate, but adds the complexity and cost of a merging mechanism for picking off each round of the pair for successive delivery to the gun. This merging mechanism also represents and additional source of power consumption. The linear linkless ammunition feeding system disclosed in Bacon et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,735 is representative of this "tiered" feeding approach.
Another approach to reducing the velocity of the bulk of the ammunition feeding motion is disclosed in Darnall U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,609. In this system, an ammunition round carrying conveyor is suspended at spaced points along its length from elevated, opposed side rails, such that the intervening segments of the conveyor hang loosely and uncontrollably from the suspension points as depending loops or pleats. As the gun fires, the conveyor loop segments are successively drawn off the exit ends of the side rails and thus freed for the delivery of rounds to the gun. Thus, only the freed conveyor loop segments travel at the high velocity to satisfy a rapid firing rate, while the suspended conveyor loop segments traverse the magazine toward the exit ends of the side rails at a significantly reduced velocity. The ammunition conveyor of this Darnall patent is open ended and thus cannot return fired shell casings to the magazine for storage. Moreover, loading the magazine with live rounds is strictly a time-consuming manual procedure.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an improved ammunition feeding system.
A further object is to provide an ammunition feeding system of the above-character which is capable of accommodating rapid gun firing rates.
Another object is to provide a linear linkless ammunition feeding system of the above-character wherein motive power requirements are dramatically reduced.
A still further object is to provide a linear linkless ammunition feeding system of the above-character, wherein the inertial load resisting the rapid acceleration of the feeding system to full gun firing rate is significantly reduced.
An additional object is to provide a linear linkless ammunition feeding system of the above-character which not only conveys live ammunition rounds from a magazine to a gun, but conveys spent shell casings back to the magazine for storage.
Yet another object is to provide a linear linkless ammunition feeding system of the above-character wherein the storage of live ammunition rounds and spent shell casings within the magazine is effectively controlled.
A further object is to provide a linear linkless ammunition system of the above-character which is economical in construction, efficient in operation, and reliable over a long useful life.
Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and in part appear hereinafter.